Thursday, June 10, 2010

It's been a while!

Well, time flies! It seems I have a bit of catching up to do. Last week, was my husband's “big weekend”. He gets a booth at the World War II Weekend and Air Show in Reading, PA every year to sell his "collection" of militaria, books, toys, etc. I am always commandeered to help (I wouldn’t mind, but it’s outside, it’s hot, and sometimes rainy and muddy and there is physical labor involved in setting up the booth – not really my cup of tea). But, I get a nice dinner out of it o:) The show itself is a lot of fun – lots of renactors and folks dressing up in uniform and 40s style clothes. They have a Big Band Dance in the evenings and lots of good junk food (I really like that part). Anyway, that’s what took up part of last week and the weekend….this is our booth where I spent most of it...

I was able to get some quilting in though before and after…I finished cutting out all of the fused appliqué pieces for the Lady Madonna quilt. Now, I just have to find the energy to layout these big pieces on the quilt top and fuse them down. It’s a big project and I think I’ll have to do it on the floor because I don’t want to mess up the layout trying to do it on my ironing board! I’ve never done a huge appliqué like this, so it will be a challenge. Then for the stitching – this one’s going to take a while! Here are just a few of the pieces…

I’m also about half way done with the quilting on Flying Cranes. I’m using the Waterworld pantograph from Jodi Beamish with a brownish/gold King Tut variegated thread – I love the way it’s looking! I hope to finish it up this weekend so I can get the binding on and start using this beautiful quilt!

I also started Cameos by Fig Tree Quilts. This will be the perfect size for my office wall, so I’ll add it to my rotating office quilt show collection! I’m using Fig Tree’s Whimsy – Yummy!!

I had a bit of a problem when I first started making the blocks – their construction is a little bit different than I’m used to and while Joanna’s pattern directions are really clear, I really wasn’t sure about the sizing for the first round. In fact, I’m still not. I’m sure if I’d have emailed her I would have gotten an answer, but, I was too anxious to just keep going and didn’t want to wait. My practice block turned out okay in the end and it’s the right size, but I’m still not sure I did it exactly right. So, does it matter? I don’t know – things like that tend to bug me. So, I may just try to find out because someone said something about doing Cameos in Christmas fabrics and I’m thinking I just may have to make another one!